Watch the Near-Miraculous Restoration of a Crushed Trombone

Watch How a Skilled Instrument Repairer Restores a Crushed Trombone and Makes It Look Like New

By Regina Sienra on November 21, 2023

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Una publicación compartida por J. Landress Brass (@jlandressbrass)

Brass instruments are priceless creative tools for the musicians who play them. But no matter how much care goes into them, sometimes accidents happen. Luckily, there are specialized shops dedicated to restoring these beautiful instruments, whatever their level of damage. Recently, J. Landress Brass, a NYC-based brass instrument store and repair shop, gained a lot of attention for the marvelous job they did restoring a crushed trombone. The result is a sparkling instrument that looks almost brand new.

The team at J. Landress Brass captured a mesmerizing video to chronicle the repair process. The fact that the instrument has long lost its shine is the lesser of its problems. According to the store, the trombone “had a run in with a hydraulic seat” which led to its unfortunate state. The bell—the wide, speaker-like part—was so severely bent that it looks like a wilted flower. “They say [it's] unrepairable, but we're going to try to walk you through the steps of getting this fixed,” says Josh Landress, owner of the shop and repairer extraordinaire.

The process is far from smooth, and it looks nearly experimental. Landress reshapes it by hitting it like a blacksmith would, before trying to use his own body weight to bend the trombone back into shape with the help of a buffing cone for car wheels. With little success, Landress resorts to using a blowtorch and later flattening out the ridges with a metal roller.

“This particular bell had sustained severe damage, resulting in work-hardening of the metal,” the team explains. “In cases like these, the appropriate response is to anneal the bell, which rearranges the structure of the metal, softening it. Subsequently, the metal will reharden as we work out the ridges and dents from the bell.”

Once the bell has regained its shape, the next steps are getting rid of any creases and resoldering the edges. After a deep clean and buffering on many scales, the trombone is ready. While Landress humbly describes his work as “not 100% brand new perfect but pretty good,” the restoration he has done is nothing short of miraculous. The trombone does not look out of place with the rest of the instruments in his shop, and it shines so bright it may as well be ready for the stage.

Though it isn’t ideal for trombones to go through such traumatic incidents, there’s no denying that repairs like there are extremely satisfying to watch. To stay up to date with J. Landress Brass' pleasing instrument restorations, you can follow them on Instagram.